


Avatar Kuruk Came Over for Dinner

by Caelum_Blue



Series: Caelum's Canonverse [15]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang/Katara - Freeform, Gen, Humor, Past Lives, Spirit World shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 19:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12282942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caelum_Blue/pseuds/Caelum_Blue
Summary: Written for Aang Week 2017. Prompt - Past Lives.Aang comes back from a Spirit World trip to find one of his pre-incarnations has betrayed him in the worst way possible, and his wife and kids are completely unsympathetic.





	Avatar Kuruk Came Over for Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 6 of Aang Week. Prompt: Past Lives.
> 
> This is another one of those ideas I came up with yeeeeeeeears ago and never wrote down but this prompt gave me an excuse to do it. Finally. Seriously, this plotbunny predates Korra. It predates Bumi and Kya. I think I thought of it in 2010. Half the reason I didn't write it back then is cuz I hadn't solidified my OC Kataang children yet.

The creepy ancient tree in the creepy Spirit World swamp dissolved before him, and Aang’s eyes fluttered open to see his family’s dinner table and the remains of a devoured meal. “...I was supposed to be meditating,” he said slowly. “Why am I not meditating?”

“You were,” Katara said. Aang turned to see she was fighting a losing battle feeding Tenzin with a banana.

“Then why am I at the dinner table?” Aang asked. He took a moment to catalogue his senses and added, “And why does my mouth taste like sea prunes? I hate sea prunes. Why would I eat sea prunes?”

_ “You _ didn’t eat sea prunes,” Katara smirked, even as Tenzin smeared banana mush up her arm.

“Aw man, Dad’s back?”

Aang turned to find Bumi and Kya in the doorway. Bumi was pouting, but Kya wasn’t. “Daddy!” she shouted, hopping through the room and into his lap. “Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy!”

_ “Oof! _ Hi moon peach,” Aang said, giving her a hug.

“Avatar Kuruk was cooler,” Bumi complained, slouching his way to the table.

Aang’s brain stalled out.  _ “What?” _

“Like I said,” Katara said, still smirking,  _ “you _ didn’t eat sea prunes.”

“What was Kuruk doing here?!”

“He said you told him to stay out of the way and he figured this was as far out of the way as he could get,” Katara shrugged. “Did you get what you needed from Koh?”

“Uh,” Aang said, wrenching this thoughts away from  _ Kuruk what the heck? _ and back to the issue he’d just spent hours trying to hash out with an ancient creepy centipede who seriously needed a new hobby. “I...think so? But he said I should talk to his mother about it, too. Which is weird, cuz she sent me to talk to  _ him. _ I’m not looking forward to it - she’s even more of a pain in the butt to talk to than he is. I don’t understand why they’re…” He trailed off when he saw the look on Katara’s face. “What?”

“Did Koh tell you to give his mother a message when you go talk to her?”

“Yes…”

“After the Mother of Faces gave you a message to give  _ him _ when you went to ask him about the whole issue?”

“Yes, but why - oh,  _ monkeyfeathers.” _

Katara nodded somberly. “You’re being used as a go-between in their mommy-son issues, sweetie.”

Aang buried his face in Kya’s hair.  _ “I am not that kind of bridge,” _ he groaned.

Kya giggled.

“So what did Koh say, anyway?” Katara asked.

Aang glanced at the kids. “I’ll tell you later.”

“We never get to hear the good stuff,” Bumi muttered. 

“When you’re older, kiddo,” Aang promised, though inwardly he really, really hoped Bumi never had to deal with Spirit World Shenanigans. At least he could count on Sokka to give tips on how to survive being the spirits’ chew toy if need be. “So what, Kuruk decided to be spiteful and take over my body in the interim?”

“Something like that,” Katara said, waterbending Tenzin’s face clean. “He spent a lot of time complaining that you weren’t letting him follow you to Koh’s lair so he could vivisect him.”

“Attacking Koh is a stupid decision and I really don’t think that would help Ummi much,” Aang muttered. Sure, Koh was a jerk, but he was a  _ complicated _ jerk, and also a major player in the Spirit World. Kuruk had never exactly been known for his foresight.

“But he also enjoyed my cooking,” Katara added, “and he kept the kids entertained, even if Kya was very confused the whole time. So all-in-all, he wasn’t the worst dinner guest we’ve had.”

“He was so cool,” Bumi gushed.

“Hey!” Aang said. “I’m cool!”

Bumi gave him an unconvinced look.

Aang held his arms out past Kya and whipped out his trusty old marble. “See? Cool!”

Kya clapped her hands. “Marble trick!”

Bumi considered the blur between Aang’s hands. “Alright yeah, you’re cool too. But Avatar Kuruk was  _ super _ cool.”

“He made me eat sea prunes,” Aang complained.

“Sea prunes are delicious, Dad!” Bumi huffed. “Avatar Kuruk said Mom makes the best sea prunes he’s tasted in centuries.”

“That is...really not hard to do,” Aang said. Katara  _ looked _ at him, and he scrambled, “You’re cooking’s great! Kuruk’s just been  _ dead _ a while and has a low bar to reach!” 

_ “And _ he was wearing a polar bear-dog,” Bumi added. “That was  _ so _ cool! I’ve never seen one before! Dad, next time we visit Grandpa, can we go find a polar bear-dog? I wanna ride one.”

“Absolutely not,” Katara said sternly. “You can ride polar dogs, you can ride penguins, you can even ride snow leopard-caribou, but you  _ cannot _ go anywhere near a polar bear-dog. They are wild, dangerous creatures - no one’s ever tamed one, and most likely no one ever will.”

“Betcha Dad could.”

_ “No.” _

“Yeah, even I have my limits, son,” Aang sighed. “Polar bear-dogs seem to be it. Now then,” he added, putting Kya down so he could get up. “Did Avatar Kuruk eat dessert?”

“No,” Katara said. “We hadn’t gotten there yet.”

“Great!” Aang said, gathering up the plates. “Kids, help me get this stuff to the kitchen, and then we can all have a nice slice of fruit pie. I need to get the taste of the sea prunes out of my mouth.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it please kudos or comment? It's always appreciated.
> 
> I have a lot of issues with the ATLA comics and The Search in particular but Koh's mommy issues will never not be hilarious to me. Don't ask me what's going on with the spirits that Aang needs to take care of here - I don't know the answer, what's really important is that Koh and the Mother of Faces are trying to use the Avatar as their go-between to pass increasingly emotional messages to each other.
> 
> Also I've always had the idea that Koh, despite being a creep, is not really a "bad guy" per se. At the very least, balance seems to be important to him - he gave Aang the info needed to save the Moon Spirit, and according to Kuruk he took Ummi to punish Kuruk for being a lazy self-centered Avatar. I'm not saying Koh's a misunderstood good person, but Koh as a balance-maintaining force of judgement is more interesting to me than Koh just being evil.
> 
> I never envisioned him having a mother who he needs joint therapy sessions with, but that image is hilarious to me and I need to take what I can get from The Search, because the vast majority of that story is being nuked in my headcanon. :P
> 
> Anyway, Spirit World Shenanigans aside, Aang's dislike of sea prunes is one of my fave character traits to make fun of now, and I have many feelings about Katara using waterbending in her role as a mother, because bending was always an extension of Katara's self and she's a brilliant fighter but she definitely sees her bending as a very useful multitool that she wants to know all the uses of so she uses it in so many ways in the series from fighting to healing to cleaning dirty rivers to cooking to bending water out of a pump just for the fun of it and it's literally a part of her and the idea of her just casually using her element to wipe off her kids' faces gives me feels.
> 
> Sorry about the polar bear-dogs, Aang, maybe you'll have better luck in your next life. ;D


End file.
